Senior Liberals are talking down the prospect of an early election triggered by blocked workplace laws.
The Australian Financial Review on Monday reported the government was giving itself the option of calling an early election of the full Senate and lower house on a platform of fighting trade union corruption.
Two bills are now before parliament: one to set up a commission to deal with misconduct by unions and employer bodies and a second to restore the Howard-era Australian Building and Construction Commission.
Both are being blocked by the Labor opposition, which argues misconduct and corruption is best dealt with by police and the Australian Crime Commission.
The bills could become double dissolution triggers if again rejected by the upper house after parliament resumes in August.
Prime Minister Tony Abbott told reporters on Monday he wanted both bills passed as soon as possible but talked down an early poll.
"There's always a lot of hyperventilating from the media about will there or won't there be an election any time soon," Mr Abbott told reporters at a farm near Goulburn.
There was no need for an early election when the government was getting its budget savings through parliament and still had a chance of getting its workplace bills passed in the Senate.
"I don't want our workplace relations legislation blocked, I want our workplace legislation passed," Mr Abbott said.
Cabinet minister Greg Hunt dismissed the idea of an early election.
"We've had a very clear view on this - we're a government that wants to run a full term," he told reporters in Melbourne.
Parliamentary secretary Scott Ryan said the government would bring back to parliament laws to deregulate higher education fees, another potential double-dissolution trigger.
Opposition Leader Bill Shorten said he looked forward to debating workplace laws and jobs with Mr Abbott.
"The question which Australian parents are asking themselves today is what sort of work will our kids have in the years and decades ahead," Mr Shorten told reporters in Adelaide.
"Labor is committed to answering that question and if Mr Abbott wants to debate workplace relations, bring it on."
Crossbench senators are warming to the idea of passing the bills but have demanded access to a confidential volume of the unions royal commission's interim report before making a final decision.
Mr Abbott has so far declined to show them the report. Labor would easily win an election if one was held now, according to recent opinion polls which show it leads the coalition by around four percentage points in two-party preferred terms.
Only six double dissolution elections have occurred in Australia in a century.
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